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January Reads

Hi everyone… I am not exactly thrilled to be sharing my January reads because honestly it was a bust. I was hesitant in hitting publish because I hate complaining; but I also feel that the readers who look to this space for their next bookish conquest, wants honest reviews. So this is exactly what I am doing. These are the books I read in January:

SCREWED BY KENDALL RYAN: This is not my first Kendall Ryan book, but it is definitely my last. Screwed was a no-brainer book with vulgar language and a hero who thinks way too much of himself. I didn’t care for the secret that was kept because to me it felt like Kendall Ryan was grasping at anything to salvage the reader’s opinion of the characters in this book. And I don’t EVEN want to get started on the title. I thought this book had the potential to be an enjoyable read, but sadly this wasn’t the case.

TO LOVE JASON THORN BY ELLA MAISE: When I read the synopsis for this book I was so excited to start reading the story because it sounded like it was going to be action packed and intense with loads of drool worthy moments. Sadly, it was anything but drool worthy, and nothing but eye rolling for me. Olive was my definition of an annoying female character, and it bothers me that this is a pattern in the romance genre. I enjoy reading about strong women who stand their ground and who respects themselves enough not to put up with any crap from a man! And then again with the man that no woman can resist – barf alert!!! The prologue of To Love Jason Thorn was a scene of how the two met for the first time as children. Now, to start a book with such an unrealistic take of what goes on in the mind of a kid was more than enough reason for me to want to throw my e-reader against the nearest brick wall. But because I am someone who hates leaving stories unfinished (even when they are terrible) I pushed through all of that so that I could come out on the other side saying that it is totally cool to give this book a hard miss!

ROOM BY EMMA DONOGHUE: I wrote a full review on Room a few weeks ago which you can read over here. I have to say that this was the best book I read for January, and I don’t want to speak too soon but I think you can expect it to appear on my 2016 Favourite Reads at the end of the year. I only found out recently that this book was adapted into a film last year which is disappointing because I would’ve preferred to watch the movie first. I don’t want anything to tarnish the intense emotional experience I had when I read Room, so I doubt I would ever watch the movie.

CAM GIRL BY LEAH RAEDER: I am not sure why this book came so highly recommended because it did absolutely nothing for me. Apart from the disappointing plot and twist, I couldn’t find any connection to the characters and there was no natural flow to the story. I felt like the book was all over the place so it was difficult for me to enjoy the reading even if I didn’t like the story itself.

UNTIL WE FLY BY COURTNEY COLE: I’ve read all 3 previous books in this series by Courtney Cole so I was looking forward to reading Brand’s story too. I enjoyed reading about him in the previous books because he seemed like a good, strong and reliable character that I wanted to know more about. So the fact that I was left utterly disappointed by his story was disheartening. After reading so many romance books things can become monotonous and repetitive fast, and I think this is exactly what happened in this case. Brand lived up to my expectation of him, but his story in general fell flat and there was no real “Wow!” moment that changed my mind about the rating I gave it.

DEEP BY KYLIE SCOTT: I read the very first book, Lick, in the Stage Dive series a few years ago and I really enjoyed it but somewhere down the line while I got caught up in new and exciting stories, I’d forgotten all about the series. I haven’t read the books that were released before Deep, which is the fourth book in the series, so I was really confused when I read it. This book was boring and predictable and just gives the women population a bad reputation for being helpless when it comes to a good looking man. I am not sure what the author’s intention was with this story but it gave me a serious headache from all the eye rolling I was doing throughout the book.

LEV BY BELLE AURORA: When I think of Lev my heart just goes “awwww”. This was my favourite romance book for the month and it was the one book that gave me some smidgen of hope for the genre. I enjoyed the characters in this first book of the Shot Caller series, because they were all so very different. It was wonderful to get a sneak peek into all their lives because it piqued my curiosity and it made me excited to read more about them. Lev himself was a unique male character that just made the book so special to read. He made me laugh, he made my want to cry, and he left me stunned quite a few times in between. It is difficult to explain too much about him without giving anything away, but for anyone on the hunt for a heart melting love story, do give this book a try.

THE SCORE BY ELLE KENNEDY: The Score is the third book in the Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy and in my opinion it was the most annoying one of all. The female main character, Allie, got on my last nerve at the start of the book while her and Dean were together. But that was swiftly replaced with a serious need to kick the male lead character, Dean, in the shins. I feel like a broken record for saying this, but I am SO OVER these “Mr Popular”, jock type guys and the girls following them like lost puppies with no self control – or self respect for that matter. And this book had all of that going on. The one good thing about this story was the intro we got to Tucker’s book – I am quite excited for that one so I have high hopes!

NEVER NEVER – PART THREE BY COLLEEN HOOVER & TARRYN FISHER: This was the disappointment of the month (and most probably the year) for me! Firstly, because I waited so long for part three and secondly, because the build up in the first two books had me hooked, so I expected some awesome plot twist. The answers we got to the mystery of what was happening with Silas and Charlie was totally lame and so, SO cheesy! I couldn’t believe THAT was what two world renowned authors came up with after all the time we waited for this story to be published. And then the ending left me so confused that I had to log onto Goodreads to check what the heck was going on because I was still in a state of denial about how awful this book, that I was so excited to read, turned out to be.

I am hoping for a better reading experience this month since I am staying clear from reading any romances for while – which is ironic because February is considered to be the month of love, after all. I am attempting to focus more on historical fiction and fantasy thrillers for my next few reads to give myself a break from the mundane and feed my brain with the knowledge it wants to soak up. I will probably fall off the bandwagon a couple of times because I am a sucker for a good romance, but it will have to be a fantastic book – I am just not interested in any more disappointments!

What have you been reading in January and what is your favourite book of the month?

Aaaah no!!! I wish you never told me that 🙁 Now I am going to have to watch it! If I end up disappointed, it’s on you!!! LOL Just kidding, thank you so much for letting me know 🙂 I will have to watch it soon!

I was more than willing to put up with the unreasonable logic in Never Never but I think it could have been delivered better. It seemed too simple.
With Malice by Eileen Cook is a great thriller if you are interested

Hi Shanice! I felt absolutely let down by the outcome of the whole story. It felt as if Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher didn’t know how to end the book so they grabbed anything they could just to put the story to bed. I guess I expected so much more because of how the first book hooked me; and because I have come to look forward to the twists and turns CoHo often throws my way in her plots.
I will have a look into Malice; thank you so much for the recommendation.

Hey Nihaad. Sorry about the bad book month. I had a single bad book (Bared to You by Sylvia Day) and I felt guttered. I’m going to add Room to my TBR list 🙂 I’ve recently gotten back into blogging, I keep wanting to have a beauty blog, but I don’t think it’s for me. I should have known since I don’t wear that much makeup on a daily basis. I’ve always been a reader, so I’m going to try changing to a book blog and hopefully I will enjoy that more. I love your blog, so it inspires me 🙂

Hello Harsha, it’s so great to have you over on this side 🙂 I read Bared to You about 2 years ago and it was dreadful! I will never go near another Sylvia Day book again. You should give Room a go for sure, it was a brilliant book that will take you on an emotional roller coaster!
Thank you so much for letting me know that this space has inspired you to move your blog in a different direction. I love it when people get back in touch with their bookish side 🙂 and I do look forward to seeing these developments take place on your blog so you should see more of me 🙂

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Hello and welcome! I’m Nihaad, a twenty something bookish girl from Cape Town, South Africa; trying to carve a place for myself in this wild and unpredictable world. Grab a cuppa and join me as I take on life, one book at a time.

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ABOUT ME

Hello and welcome! I’m Nihaad, a twenty something bookish girl from Cape Town, South Africa; trying to carve a place for myself in this wild and unpredictable world. Grab a cuppa and join me as I take on life, one book at a time.

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